The Relationship of Family Environments to Parent Motivation Strategies and Children's Self-Consciousness in the Math Classroom.

Yee, Doris K.

Modified versions of a family decision-making scale were administered to 291 students in grades 4, 5, 7, and 8 and 314 parents to assess their perceptions of the degree to which the child shares power and authority with parents and participates in making decisions at home. Study 1 found support for the hypothesis that parent-child authority relationships are systematically related to the types of strategies parents use to motivate their children in mathematics. Parents from highly conflicted or highly authoritarian family environments relied more on extrinsic motivation practices, while those from highly child self-regulating family environments relied more on intrinsic motivation practices. Parents' preference for certain motivation practices was mediated by their perceptions of their children's mathematics-related attitudes. Study 2 found support for the hypothesis that parent-child authority relationships are systematically related to children's self-consciousness in the mathematics classroom setting. Children from highly authoritarian families reported greater self-consciousness in the mathematics classroom. It was concluded that parent-child authority structures are systematically related to parental behaviors and children's self-assessments. (Author/MNS)